Italy is second producer of tomatoes for industrial use in the world, behind USA and followed by China.
All together they cover about 60% of total production. Italy is the leader in Europe, followed by Spain,
Turkey and Portugal.
In the Mediterranean area, Italy plays a major role for the tomato derivatives production, with 14% of
the total production and 48% of the European one, with a invoiced of over 3.2 milliard €.
The national supply chain of industrial tomato is organized in two District, the Northern and Central-
South one, where Emilia-Romagna and Apulian are the Regions with the higher production.
Data about cultivated area with tomatoes for industry (he), total production (ton) and harvested production
(ton), import and export, the various phases of industrial transformation to obtain derivatives,
such as tomato pulp, peeled tomatoes, tomato concentrates, cherry tomatoes, and sauces were analysed.
The tomatoes transformation processes produce waste of different origin, such as unsuitable tomatoes
for industrial processing, the water used in the line production and waste due to the secondary products
(peel tomatoes, seed).
The recovery and reuse of these by-products, considered in a concept of circular economy, were analysed.
These allow to rationalize and manage costs for transformation processes and to contain these
for disposal of waste.
Specifically, same of the energetic valorisation processes of the by-products were described. The anaerobic
digestion process, the roasting process and microbial cell to produce electric and thermic energy.
This energy can be used in the same transformation cycle and also entered into power grid.
Eco-paint, used as a coating for metallic food packaging, biodegradable materials, as plastic bags,
sheets for covering greenhouses or fields, bioactive antioxidant compounds, such as lycopene and β-
carotene, used as alimentary integrator, animal feed and compost can be obtained from tomatoes byproducts.
The waste water, at least, by membrane separation process, can be filtered and re-used in the tomato
industry and for irrigation.